Posts Tagged ‘#hope’

I have been sick to my stomach with fear for the last twelve hours. I am terrified. I fear that people will die in our streets because we’ve validated racism and hate. I fear people will die overseas to satisfy grandiose rhetoric. I fear the environment and the land–the actual soil and air–will be done irreparable harm. I fear our national conversation and our 250-year old democratic experiment will take decades to recover from this choice, if it recovers at all.

But this is not the time for despair.

This is the time to pick your fight. Immigrants rights, civil rights, gay rights, environmental protection, international understanding, nuclear proliferation…whatever it is that you feel strongly about, fight for it now. Find a non-profit, a charitable organization, and don’t just give a few dollars, dedicate your time. Don’t just share hashtags and opinions, don’t just put your voice in the fight. Put your time in the fight. Put your hands in the fight.

Show the people who chose fear and hate that we are not beaten, we are not silenced: We are energized. We are invigorated. The fight is on our doorsteps now, and we must not back down.

For my part, I looked up my local Sierra Club chapter, and found they need writers to volunteer time, so I will likely volunteer there. If anyone has suggestions for other proven environmental groups where I could volunteer in the Los Angeles area, I’d love to hear them.

Please also be vocal about what you are doing. We need each other now more than ever, we need to know that none of us are giving up, we need to know that each of us is fighting. That will get us through the next two years to the mid-terms, and the two years after that to the election, and the decades after as we come to understand the full repercussions of this choice.

[Update: I thought I’d include some resources for finding places to volunteer: